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Farming Renewable Energy – Five Reasons Farmers Love Wind & Solar

There are many benefits to installing more renewable energy.
Renewable energy costs are falling dramatically, it provides another reliable
source of homegrown energy, has created jobs and invested billions across rural
America, and is driving more competition in the energy markets.

Renewable energy projects like solar and wind are installed
primarily in rural America. Farmers and ranchers have a long relationship making
a living from their land, working alongside it to both maximize their yields
and ensure its quality is preserved for future generations. As wind and solar
have become a new cash crop for farmers, it’s natural for farmers have a lot of
questions about how renewable energy can benefit their farming operation.

Here are 5 ways renewable energy
projects can benefit farmers:

Stable
Income
Farmers have long harvested crops on their farmland. Now farmers who
participate in wind or solar projects are compensated for leasing their land to
a renewable energy company. These fixed-term leases provide a stable,
guaranteed income for farmers year-after-year – in wet and dry years, through
unexpected frosts or hailstorm damages, through times of low commodity prices
or lower yields.

In 2015, farmers and ranchers received
over $222 million in land lease payments. This added revenue has become a
foundation that the farmer can use to grow his farming operation. It can
diversify income, provide cash flow in years of low corn prices (like the past
5 years), and can help finance new machinery,sheds, or other investments on the
farm site.

“The wind towers have really been a boon for this area. It’s given us another
$20,000 income a year, and I just think they’re fantastic. I wish the whole
farm was covered with them,” said Tim
Hemphill, a farmer in Milford, Iowa.

Access
Roads Built to Benefit Your FarmAn access road is built to the base of the wind turbine for construction
and maintenance of the turbine. Wind companies have years of experience working
alongside farmers to try to construct the new road in a way that benefits the
farmer and the wind company. These roads can often be built perpendicular to
township roads, which keeps planting alongside it simple even for farmers who
don’t use autosteer. Farmers are free to use the access road to park grain
trucks, tractors, combines and other equipment.

Solar
Farms Bring Pollinators, Which Boost YieldsWhen solar farms are being constructed, many companies have begun to plant
native grasses and wildflowers beneath the panels to attract pollinators. This
means that in addition to a land-lease payment for the solar field, farmers
also benefit from an abundance of pollinators right next to their crops.

A lab at Iowa State University (ISU) is
finding that even a self-pollinating crop like soybeans can find big yield
benefits from bees. Honey bee-pollinated soybeans have found yield increases of
10-40 percent compared to self-pollinated beans, and ISU expects that native
bees may have an even larger effect. Projects like these are good for a
farmer’s income and good for the future of their land, preserving the health of
the farmland and boosting yields.

Improving
Roads & BridgesWind farms provide new tax revenue for the county and township, which is
often used to improve roads, bridges and reduce taxes for the community. Not
only does this help the whole community, but it also helps farmers ensure they
can continue operating heavy machinery on roads and bridges around their farm.

The Franklin County Board in Iowa recently voted to lower
property taxes after it paid off a bond used to fund $18 million in road
and bridge improvements thanks to wind energy payments. Michael Nolte, a farmer
on the Franklin County Board, stated, “[Wind] is our financial future. It’s
helping us survive and maintain services, whereas other counties have had to
make cuts.” The counties surrounding Franklin County had recently been closing
bridges to heavy farm machinery after lacking the money to fix the bridges.

Farmland
Preservation
Wind energy has been called the “new
corn” for struggling farmers, and now solar fields are increasingly
allowing farmers to export a new product from their land in a long-term,
sustainable way.

In fact, lease payments from wind and solar can mean the difference between
keeping a farm in the family or selling off the land or underinvesting in the
operation during tough years. It allows farmers to continue their farming
operation uninterrupted with the added benefit of dependable revenue.

Jason Wilson, a farmer in Calhan, CO, said, “The wind farm allowed us to be
able to keep our family farm. We had come to a point where it no longer made
financial sense to keep the property even with its vast sentimental value. The
wind farm balanced the financial viability with the sentimental value, allowing
the family farm to be passed on to the next generation.”

Listen to Gary Baldosser, a fourth-generation farmer who raises corn, soybeans,
and wheat. Gary testified before an Ohio panel to help state lawmakers understand
how wind energy helps move farmers forward. Gary’s town had a wind farm
proposal but it could not be built because of Ohio’s setback requirements.
Listen to what a wind farm would mean for his family and the legacy he will
leave his children:

By providing a stable income for farmers, building new
access roads, helping fund local road and bridge improvements, and boosting
yields and pollinators, it’s no wonder farmers and ranchers have turned to
renewable energy. This new, dependable crop allows farmers to continue
harvesting their land uninterrupted. As David Day, a rancher in North Dakota, puts it: “Everybody is getting
excited about it now, because it isn’t just a paycheck. For older people, now I
have a retirement deal that I can look at, that I can go travel …. For the more
middle-aged ranchers… it’s a security net for us to look at …[to] do the
upgrades that we need on the ranch now and still secure our future for our
children.”